Today, the Imperial Palace occupies the former castle grounds, Tokyo Station stands to the east, Otemachi lies mainly to the north, and Yurakucho to the south. These areas now merge visually into one business zone, yet their histories and functions differ. Marunouchi\u2019s strongest modern axis runs between the station and the palace, while Otemachi developed a denser concentration of government-linked, financial and media institutions. Yurakucho grew with theaters, entertainment and the rail corridor as well as offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Edo Period: Daimyo Estates and Daimyo Koji<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
During the Edo period, the land was occupied by residences of powerful daimyo<\/em>, the regional lords who were required to maintain a presence in the shogun\u2019s capital. The avenue known as Daimyo Koji\u2014\u201cDaimyo Alley\u201d\u2014ran through a district of walled compounds, gates, service spaces and gardens. These were not simply private homes. They were political institutions that housed retainers, supported ceremonial obligations and expressed rank through their scale and placement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A nineteenth-century kiriezu<\/em> map helps reveal this political geography, but it should be read as a historical guide rather than a modern survey. Its importance lies in showing the pattern of large named compounds beside the castle. When those compounds disappeared after the Meiji Restoration, the land did not automatically become a fine-grained civilian neighborhood. Their scale survived as a development condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The abolition of the domains and the reorganization of the new capital broke apart the political system that had sustained the daimyo residences. Many buildings were removed, and former estate land passed into government control. Parts of Marunouchi became military facilities and drill grounds. The district\u2019s symbolic location remained important, but its everyday urban life thinned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This period of apparent emptiness is crucial. Marunouchi was not vacant in a historical sense; it was land whose previous institutions had collapsed and whose next use had not yet been fixed. Because the government could dispose of large connected parcels, the area offered something rare in central Tokyo: the possibility of planning an office district at the scale of entire blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1890, Mitsubishi acquired a large tract of the former military land. The purchase has sometimes been retold as the moment a company created a city from nothing. A more accurate reading is that Mitsubishi inherited a landscape already shaped by castle defenses, daimyo compounds and state ownership. What the company added was sustained capital, architectural coordination and a long time horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Control of contiguous land allowed streets, building lines and leases to be considered together. It also reduced the fragmentation that complicated redevelopment elsewhere. Mitsubishi could erect offices in stages while retaining influence over the district as a whole. That model\u2014large landholdings developed over decades\u2014became one of Marunouchi\u2019s defining characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before construction transformed the area, the open ground was popularly called Mitsubishi-ga-hara<\/em>, or \u201cMitsubishi Field.\u201d The expression was a nickname, not an official place-name. It captured the visual contrast between a centrally located expanse of underused land and the dense city around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first generation of offices introduced brick construction and a more regular business streetscape. Mitsubishi Ichigokan, completed in 1894 to a design by the British architect Josiah Conder, became the best-known early building. The structure standing there today is a reconstruction completed in the twenty-first century, not the untouched 1894 original. Even so, its massing, red brick and courtyard setting help visitors imagine the scale and texture of the first office quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As brick offices lined the streets, part of Marunouchi acquired the nickname \u201cLittle London,\u201d or Iccho London<\/em>. The phrase referred to the British-influenced architectural atmosphere of a limited streetscape; it was never an official name for the entire district. Repetition mattered as much as any single fa\u00e7ade. Similar materials, cornice lines and setbacks created the impression of an ordered office quarter distinct from the surrounding wooden city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This first office district established a pattern that later rebuilding would repeatedly reinterpret: prestigious architecture at street level, large corporate tenants, and a strong relationship between property ownership and district management. The buildings changed, but the organizational logic endured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tokyo Station opened in 1914 on Marunouchi\u2019s eastern edge. Designed by Tatsuno Kingo, its long red-brick fa\u00e7ade gave the district a monumental railway front. The station connected national rail movement to the capital\u2019s political and business center, turning Marunouchi from a planned office quarter beside the palace into the arrival point for executives, officials and travelers from across Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The station also strengthened the ceremonial east\u2013west relationship between rail terminal and palace. Gyoko-dori, the broad avenue leading toward the palace, made movement through the district both practical and symbolic. Marunouchi\u2019s value now came from being simultaneously beside the imperial center and connected to the national transport network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 tested the city\u2019s buildings and infrastructure. Reconstruction across Tokyo encouraged greater attention to fire resistance, structural performance and wider urban systems. In Marunouchi, the interwar years brought larger office buildings and a shift away from the intimate scale of the earliest brick blocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The original Marunouchi Building, completed shortly before the earthquake, became a symbol of a new office economy: many tenants gathered in one large, modern building with services suited to metropolitan business. The district was no longer simply a collection of company offices. It was becoming an ecosystem in which landlords, tenants, banks, transport operators and government institutions reinforced one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wartime controls altered business activity, and air raids damaged central Tokyo. Tokyo Station\u2019s Marunouchi building lost its domes and upper portions in 1945. The postwar station was repaired in a simplified two-story form, a practical solution that remained familiar for decades. This version should not be confused with either the original 1914 design or the restored building seen today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Postwar recovery intensified demand for centrally located offices. Marunouchi\u2019s large plots, established business reputation and rail access made rebuilding comparatively attractive. The district became associated with Japan\u2019s expanding corporate economy, while the station handled growing commuter and intercity flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the high-growth decades, Marunouchi consolidated its role as a headquarters district. Mid-rise modernist blocks replaced many earlier brick buildings. Efficient floor area, elevators, mechanical systems and standardized fa\u00e7ades mattered more than picturesque continuity. At street level, the district could feel quiet outside office hours because its primary purpose was work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This phase explains both Marunouchi\u2019s power and its later problems. Concentrating offices produced an unmatched business address, but it also created a single-use environment. When companies began demanding larger, more flexible and technologically advanced space, the aging postwar building stock became a constraint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century redevelopment replaced many older office buildings with towers combining offices, retail, restaurants, hotels and cultural facilities. The change was not merely vertical. Developers increasingly treated streets, ground floors, plazas and events as parts of the district\u2019s economic infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marunouchi Naka-dori illustrates this shift. Once read mainly as a serviceable office street, it became a landscaped pedestrian-oriented spine with shops, caf\u00e9s, public art and seasonal programming. The district still depends on corporate employment, but it now seeks visitors after business hours and on weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n JR East\u2019s preservation and restoration project returned the Marunouchi station building to the three-story form and domed silhouette associated with its 1914 appearance, while retaining its function as a major working station. Completed in 2012, the project did not freeze the district in the past. It made a restored historical landmark the visual center of a new high-rise landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This contrast is central to contemporary Marunouchi. Historical forms are selected, reconstructed or restored, while surrounding development grows taller and more complex. The station and Mitsubishi Ichigokan provide red-brick reference points, but the present cityscape is a modern composition rather than a direct survival of the prewar district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These neighboring districts form a continuous central business area, yet they should not be collapsed into one label. Marunouchi is most strongly identified with the station\u2013palace axis, Mitsubishi-led land development and corporate headquarters. Otemachi, immediately north, has particularly strong associations with major financial institutions, government-linked functions and media companies. Yurakucho, to the south, developed a more visible mix of theaters, entertainment, railway arches, shops and offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Walking between them reveals gradual transitions rather than hard walls. Their differences come from distinct land histories, transport edges and redevelopment patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Its strength comes from the combination of large centrally controlled parcels, proximity to the Imperial Palace, direct access to Tokyo Station and more than a century of accumulated corporate networks. No single factor would have produced the same result alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The area contained large daimyo residences during the Edo period. After the Meiji Restoration, much of the land came under state control and parts were used by the military before Mitsubishi acquired a major tract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The name conveys the idea of being inside an enclosure, referring to the district\u2019s location within the outer defensive zone of Edo Castle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The nickname described the broad, sparsely developed land held by Mitsubishi before the office district was built. It was a popular expression, not an official place-name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A cluster of British-influenced brick office buildings created a streetscape that reminded observers of London. The nickname referred to that architectural impression and should not be treated as a permanent name for all of Marunouchi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It made the district the business-facing entrance to the national rail network. The station increased land value, intensified commuter flows and created the powerful urban axis between the railway and the palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No. The original 1894 building was demolished in 1968. The present building is a carefully researched reconstruction completed decades later, using the earlier design as its historical basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"1849](\"https:\/\/yuru-rekishi-sanpo.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/daimyo_koji.jpg\")
The Meiji Transition: From Feudal Estates to State and Military Land<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why Mitsubishi Acquired Marunouchi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Mitsubishi-ga-hara and the First Brick Offices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
From Mitsubishi-ga-hara to \u201cLittle London\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Panoramic](\"https:\/\/yuru-rekishi-sanpo.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/marunouchi_fukan_meiji.jpg\")
![\"Marunouchi's](\"https:\/\/yuru-rekishi-sanpo.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/old-marunouchi-street-tokyo-1920-1.png\")
Tokyo Station Reorients the District<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Tokyo](\"https:\/\/yuru-rekishi-sanpo.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/tokyostation_outside-trees-1914-1.jpg\")
Earthquake, Expansion and a New Building Scale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
War, Air Raids and Postwar Reconstruction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Postwar Office Economy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
From Low-Rise Blocks to High-Rise Mixed Use<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Tokyo Station Restoration and the Reframing of History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Marunouchi, Otemachi and Yurakucho: Similar but Not the Same<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Historical Traces Can Be Seen Today?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How Marunouchi Changed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Era<\/th> Main Land Use<\/th> Major Actors<\/th> Transport and Urban Form<\/th> Surviving or Recreated Traces<\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Edo<\/td> Daimyo residences<\/td> Shogunate and domain lords<\/td> Large walled compounds beside castle moats<\/td> Moat geography; block scale; historical maps<\/td><\/tr> Early Meiji<\/td> State and military land<\/td> Meiji government and army<\/td> Open drill grounds and underused central land<\/td> Few direct structures; land pattern remained decisive<\/td><\/tr> Late Meiji\u2013Taisho<\/td> Planned brick office quarter<\/td> Mitsubishi, architects, corporate tenants<\/td> Regular streets; Tokyo Station opened in 1914<\/td> Reconstructed Mitsubishi Ichigokan; station fabric<\/td><\/tr> Interwar\u2013postwar<\/td> Large modern office buildings<\/td> Landowners, banks, corporations, railway operators<\/td> Increasing building scale and commuter flows<\/td> Street alignments and business concentration<\/td><\/tr> Contemporary<\/td> High-rise mixed use<\/td> Developers, JR East, city authorities, tenants<\/td> Towers, plazas, underground links and pedestrian space<\/td> Restored station, recreated brick imagery, public realm<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Why is Marunouchi Tokyo\u2019s main business district?<\/h3>\n\n\n
What was in Marunouchi before Mitsubishi?<\/h3>\n\n\n
What does \u201cMarunouchi\u201d mean?<\/h3>\n\n\n
Why was it called Mitsubishi-ga-hara?<\/h3>\n\n\n
Why was Marunouchi nicknamed \u201cLittle London\u201d?<\/h3>\n\n\n
How did Tokyo Station change Marunouchi?<\/h3>\n\n\n
Is the Mitsubishi Ichigokan building original?<\/h3>\n\n\n
Sources and Further Reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n